Quantum entanglement for two electrons in the excited states of helium-like systems

Abstract

Quantum entanglement for two electrons in the excited states of helium-like atom or ions is investigated using two-electron wave functions constructed in the B-spline basis. As a measure of spatial (electron – electron orbital) entanglement, the von Neumann entropy and linear entropy of the reduced density matrix are calculated for the 1s2s 1,3 S excited states for systems with some selected Z values from Z = 2 to 100. Results for the helium atom are compared with other available calculations. We have also investigated the entropies for these excited states when the nucleus charge is reduced from Z = 2 continuously to Z = 1. At such a critical charge, all the singly excited states of this system become unbound, and the linear entropies and the von Neumann entropies for the excited states approach 1/2 and 1, respectively; the limits for the entropies when one electron is bound to the nucleus, and the other is free.